Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
through Ryan’s eyes
I’ve been working with a lot of kids because I’ve been tutoring all day, and then doing kids club at night. So I’ve been around a lot of kids. Many of them are so open to you. Just getting to know them is so easy, and it’s amazing the kind of stuff that they know how to do best. What they can do, what kind of person they are continues to surprise me. Example: today, we did two classes back-to-back with two different groups. One kid I was tutoring was okay with a math worksheet we were doing. Another kid sits down – yesterday he barely talked to me, and he looks at the first problem. I didn’t even say anything and he tells me the answer. I was like, “what, you knew that?!” and very surprised. He was like, “yeah” and just knew the answer. He gives me all the correct answers to the other ones. Stuff like that.
I was talking with some kids my age at the apartments where we’re doing kids club. I noticed one of them hanging around and I started talking to him. Turns out he’s from Kenya and he moved to St. Louis like a month ago. We were just talking about his story – he was a great guy. Name is Zacaria. A couple of his friends joined him, Muhammed and Michele. Not sure where Michele was from, but knows like six languages because he said he wasn’t sure where he would be going, like France or Germany or here. And he ended up here. He had traveled to France, he had traveled all over Europe. And he was just telling me about how different it is coming here to America. But he said, “I still like it”. If I had never taken that uncomfortable little step of talking with these guys, I would never have gotten to know their story. For me, I know how valued I feel when someone is genuinely curious about who I am, what I have to say, so God just continues to show himself to me through the people around me. And just how unique everyone is and how loved we all are.
routine
Breakfast
Devotional
Tutoring kids
Lunch
Work! (tutoring, building things, cleaning stuff…)
(rest??)
neighborhood kids club
slushee/ice cream run
debrief
(band practice??)
BED!
Just like regular life, right?
Update from Francisco (a sophomore) who is tutoring Joshua (a first grader) this week: “Joshua is a pretty big hassle, but he likes helping people as far as I can tell. But maybe if I get to know him better, it will be easier. Oh, and he has a pet tiger.”
Monday, June 21, 2010
a quick Sunday note (pictures hopefully to follow)
Sundays at New City are just amazing – particularly when you’re starting off a high school work week! There’s plenty of prep and orientation, but there’s also worshipping with an unusually ethnically diverse group, eating dinner at the homes of strangers (who don’t stay that way long), and heading out for the first neighborhood kids club of the week.
Our team is in the same place this year as it has been the past two – an apartment complex where many of the families are new to the ‘States. A Burmese family we spent time with has been here 11 months, and an Iraqi family – only one month. It’s fun and fascinating to seek to connect and find ways to communicate as we’re playing with kids, feeding them snow cones, and just generally having a lovely (if hot and sweaty) time!
Oh, and when we were at kids club we found a new challenge for the week: the swings from the swing set we built last year have somehow disappeared!
and if that blue blue bird don’t sing
We made it back to New City for the first orientation talk where we got to meet up with Andrew and the two other groups we’ll be with this week – one from Iowa, one from Pardeeville, WI.
The week promises to be interesting: we’re short a group (one cancelled at the 11th hour) and the weather is predicted to be mid-90’s every day. Sounds like our kind of challenge!
Oh – and Lori found a little feathery blue bird left behind in one of the dorm rooms. He has since been adopted, named Pete, and pretty much become our mascot for the week. Look for him in pictures – and (if he does anything interesting!) in stories going forward!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Are you David Taylor?
What do a police car, a silver van and a Mike Collison have in common?... David Taylor. Read on!
Next stop? The Cahokia Mounds! Also known as the Giant Twinkie :), Monk’s Mound was constructed by hand between from 900 to1100 AD. It still stands 100 feet tall and provides a fantastic view of the St. Louis – particularly at sunset! We wandered and played around a bit, prayed for the city, and headed back down. 
Just as we neared the New City neighborhood, a squad car shot around Bob and Angela’s cars and pulled Mike’s van over. The officer came up to the van and asked Mike if he was David Taylor. Mike assured him that he was no such person, and we learned that there was an alert out for a silver van in connection with a domestic disturbance. We were soon en route once again and made it to the New City Dorms without further incident.
The long day wrapped up with a general takeover of a local Steak and Shake restaurant and then crashing on floors as the dorm rooms were still being occupied by this past week's student groups. On to tomorrow's exploration of the City!
Monday, June 7, 2010
t-shirts!
